Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/03/11

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Anonymous Allegations
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 19:27:42 -0500

At 12:16 AM 3/12/98 -0000, Claes Bjerner wrote:
>More important, as a journalist, I take personal offence if someone asks
for my source. Actually, asking for the name of a news source or any other
attempt to disclose the name of a news source is a serious  violation of my
country=B4s constitution. And I don=B4t think the American constitution is v=
ery
different in this respect. So when a Leica repairman confides in me and
complains about  recent quality deterioration I=B4m obliged by the ethics of
journalism to protect his identity.
>
>BTW, do you turn down all stories in for instance NYT or Washington Post
if they don=B4t print the names of their sources? Would those stories in you=
r
opinion therefore be "worthless"? Deep Throat certainly had quite an impact
on the future of Nixon, didn=B4t he?=20

Claes, you raise a fascinating point, and one that rings hard with me, as I
spent a few years as a journalist.  In the US, a story rarely gets printed
without a source -- that was one of the primary gripes the press had with
the Military during Viet-Nam, that so many officers and EM's would reveal
something, but not wish to be quoted.  The Deep Throat thing is dead on
target:  it took five or six months of constant iteration before Deep
Throat was perceived as being legitimate, precisely because his or her real
identity was never released.

You will almost never see a story in the Washington Post or New York Times
without the source being set out in full.  It is normal practice for both
papers to decline stories where they cannot obtain a source willing to have
their names printed.  The Washington Post runs an OMBUDSMAN column every
Sunday on the Editorial Page, where this issue is discussed in detail, and
you might wish to review some of these.

In short, innuendo and rumour are cheap slams unworthy of this forum.  If
folks have something to say, then say it and CITE YOUR SOURCES.  Otherwise,
pray, keep silence.

Incidentally, one LUG member detailed to me by private E-mail the repairmen
he had cited as saying Leica quality was down;  another detailed the two
shops he stated had told him that quality control was a problem.  This adds
a great deal of credibility to the charges both have raised;  though I
haven't the energy to double-check their stories, I do have the opportunity
to do so.

Marc


msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
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